How to Correctly Write Your Education History on a Resume (with Enrollment/Graduation Year Chart)
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Category: Job Search Preparation & Interview Tips
Authors: Shusaku Yosa
The education section of a Japanese resume (rirekisho) is the first place a hiring manager checks your background. Getting the basics wrong can, by itself, give the impression that you lack basic business manners. This article explains the correct way to write your education history, together with worked examples. We've also prepared an "enrollment and graduation year chart (Western/Japanese calendar)" so you can check the years at a glance—use it whenever you're unsure which year to write.
Before you start writing your education, confirm the basic rules that apply to the whole resume. Just mastering these greatly improves the readability and accuracy of the education section.
You may write the enrollment and graduation years in either the Western calendar (e.g., 2020) or the Japanese era calendar (e.g., Reiwa 2), but you must be consistent across the entire resume. Mixing them—Western in the education section, Japanese in the work section—makes your history hard to read and creates extra work for the reader. Match the notation in the date-of-birth, work-history, and qualifications fields too. When using the Japanese calendar, write "Reiwa" and "Heisei" in full and avoid abbreviations like "H2."
On the first line of the education section, write "Education" (Gakureki) centered. From the next line, begin listing your actual education in chronological order, and after finishing all of it, leave one blank line and likewise place a centered "Work History" (Shokureki) heading before continuing with your work history. Clearly separating education and work history makes it easier for the hiring manager to follow your background.
Write school names in full without abbreviation. Write "high school" as "high school" in full (in Japanese, use 高等学校 rather than 高校); for public schools, "◯◯ Prefectural ◯◯ High School," and for private schools, formats like "Educational Foundation ◯◯, ◯◯ High School." For universities, record the faculty, department, and major accurately, as in "◯◯ University, △△ Faculty, □□ Department," checking that it matches the wording on the application guidelines or your diploma.
Which school you start from depends on whether you're a new graduate or a mid-career (career-change) applicant. Choose your starting school to match your position.
On a career-change resume, it's common to start from the one before your final education—that is, from high school graduation. For mid-career applicants with work experience, there's no need to go all the way back to junior high (compulsory education). Because work history matters more than education, keep the education section concise and make the work-history section substantial.
For new-graduate hiring or part-time applications where work experience is limited, it's standard to write from junior high school graduation. With little work history, you show your background through education, so list it in order: junior high graduation, high school enrollment, high school graduation, university enrollment, university graduation. Record both enrollment and graduation for high school, and likewise both for university.
Let's look at an actual example. Below is the case of a university-graduate career changer writing from high school graduation. Write the year and month on the left, and the school name and enrollment/graduation on the right, aligned.
Always write enrollment and graduation as a set. The year you graduate high school and the year you enter university are the same year as a rule (except when you take a gap year for exams). Even if you can't fit the faculty and department, don't omit the university and faculty names. For more detailed writing of each field, see also The Complete Guide to Writing a Resume: Manners and the Right Answer for Each Field.
The trickiest part of the education section is the "year" of enrollment and graduation. We've prepared a chart that lists the high school and university enrollment and graduation years based on your birth year. These are the years for standard progression and graduation, with no gap years, repeated years, or leaves of absence. Check the row for your birth year.
This chart treats people born between April 2 and April 1 of the following year as the same school-year cohort. Therefore, people born between January 1 and April 1 (known as "hayaumare," early-year births) should refer to the previous year's row. For example, someone born in February 2001 falls under the 2000 row. To convert to the Japanese calendar: Reiwa = Western year − 2018, Heisei = Western year − 1988, Showa = Western year − 1925 (so 2026 is Reiwa 8).
Education can include cases that are easy to get wrong—gap years, repeated years, withdrawal, and so on. Let's confirm the correct way to write the representative patterns.
Even if you took a gap year or repeated a year, you don't need to write the words "gap year" or "repeated." If you record the enrollment and graduation years as they actually are, the result naturally appears in the length of enrollment. There's no need to add a reason; it's enough to be ready to explain it positively if asked in the interview.
If you withdrew from school midway, write "◯◯ University, △△ Faculty, □□ Department — Withdrew." Leaving it blank or falsely claiming graduation is falsification of your record, so always write the facts. If you don't mind, adding a brief reason such as "Withdrew for personal reasons" softens the impression. If you had a period of leave, also record it accurately, such as "Took a leave of absence for ◯ months from ◯ (month) ◯ (year)."
For transfer from a junior college or technical college, write "◯◯ University, △△ Faculty, □□ Department — Transferred." If you went on to graduate school, write "Completed" as in "◯◯ University Graduate School, △△ Research Course, □□ Major, Master's Program — Completed" (graduate school is "completed," not "graduated"). Write a vocational school in full, as in "◯◯ Vocational School, △△ Department — Graduated."
If the school was merged, closed, or renamed during or after your enrollment, the basic rule is to write the name as it was while you attended. If needed, add the current name in parentheses, such as "(now ◯◯ High School)," so the hiring manager can confirm it more easily.
Once you've finished all your education, leave one blank line, place the "Work History" heading, and list your joining and leaving of companies in chronological order. For how to write the work-history section and the expression "present" (genzai ni itaru) used when applying while employed, see How to Write "Present" (Genzai ni Itaru): The Correct Meaning and Usage on a Resume. If you'd like to check the overall format and examples for a career-change resume, see also How to Write a Career-Change Resume: Format and Correct Examples for Education and Work History.
For your resume's education history, the basics are to unify the Western/Japanese calendar throughout, use full official school names, and write enrollment and graduation accurately as a set. As for where to start: high school graduation for career changers, and junior high graduation for new graduates and students. If you're unsure about an enrollment or graduation year, check your birth year in this article's chart. Don't bother writing gap years or repeated years, but record withdrawals and leaves of absence accurately. With a well-organized education section down to the details, raise the first impression of your document screening.
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